Where Are They Now: Black IT Professional Magazine

Do any of you remember the Black IT Professional Magazine that we published back in 2004-2005 era? I was very proud to be national president when this glossy-covered magazine was a publication shared with all BDPA members and conference attendees.

There were a number of BDPA members, entrepreneurs and experts in the August 2004 issue of the magazine (see list below). I wonder where they are now?

• Robert Anthony - 'Securing Our Resources at Home and Abroad'
• Mario Armstrong (Mayor's Office of Baltimore) - who's who in IT
• Adrian Backus (Princeton Theological Seminary) - who's who in IT
• Tonee Bell (A Unity System) - 'Making His Mark in Computer Technology'
• Robert Bonow, MD - 'Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle'
• Vercilla Brown (BDPA Exec Director) - 'Membership message'
• Todd Stephen Burroughs - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Geary Broadnax (Dovarri) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Dale Bryant (The Bryant Group) - 'Finding Financial Security'
• Stampp Corbin (RetroBox) - 'IT Entrpreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Richard Campbell (Securiant) - 'Securing Our Future Through Technology'
• Tony Davis (ElliottRoth & Associates) - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Sharon Dawes - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Linda DeLavallade (Hewitt Associates) - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Lurita Doan (New Technology Management) - 'Securing Our Future Through Technology'
• David Dobrin - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Sonya Donaldson - 'Securing Our Future Through Technology'
• Pierre Dunagan (The Dunagan Group) - 'Finding Financial Security'
• William Farrow (Chicago Board of Trade) - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Marvin Fields - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Elizabeth Fife, Ph.D. (Center for Telecom Management) - 'Careers in Telecommunications'
• Ansel Floy (Medstar Health VNA) - who's who in IT
• Sharon Gazaway-Bell (Audio X-Press) - 'Team Building: Play Your Way to Profits'
• Chance Glenn, Ph.D. (Syncrodyne) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Melvin Gravely, Ph.D. (Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Charles Hickey (BDPA Los Angeles) - 'BDPA Member Invovled in Community Outreach'
• Wayne Hicks - BDPA president's message
• David Hinson (Wealth Management Network) - 'Finding Financial Security'
• Gerald Hoffman - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Pamela Horne (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts) - who's who in IT
• Jamal Jackson (Detroit MI) - letter to the editor
• Dr. Mae Jemison - 'Dr. Mae Jemison is Headliner at BDPA Conference'
• Pamela Jeter (Verizon Communications) - who's who in IT
• Channelle Johnson (Washington DC) - letter to the editor
• Josephine Johnson, MD - 'Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle'
• Marcus Johnson - 'Team Building: Play Your Way to Profits'
• Patrice Kelly - 'Team Building: Play Your Way to Profits'
• John Laney (CM IT Solutions) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• David Malone (Information Logistics Group) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Cathy Marks (Houston TX) - letter to the editor
• John McCarthy - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Pamela McElvane - publisher's page
• Lamont Meeks (ComSys) - 'Securing Our Future Through Technology'
• Sheryl Nance-Nash - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Sherreen Ogletree (Wiltech Systems Group) - who's who in IT
• Deborah Owens - 'Get Your Wealth Online'
• James Owens - 'Careers in Telecommunications'
• Tyrone Parker (Hewitt Associates) - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Francis Pereira, Ph.D. (Center for Telecom Management) - 'Careers in Telecommunications'
• Bruce Scheier - 'Securing America Post 9-11'
• Matthew Scott - 'Finding Financial Security'
• Mary Spio (Gray-Spio Digital Media) - 'IT Entrepreneurs Creating Our Own'
• Lolita Standifer - 'BDPA Member Involved in Community Outreach'
• Stephen Trilling (Symantec) - 'Careers in Telecommunications'
• Arthur Varnardo (T. Rowe Price) - 'Get Your Wealth Online'
• Montressa Washington - 'Get Your Wealth Online'
• Carolyn White - 'Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle' and 'Making His Mark in Computer Technology'
• Gregory White (Watson Wyatt Worldwide) - 'Careers in Telecommunications'
• Rebecca Whitener (EDS) - 'Securing Our Resources at Home and Abroad'
• Charmon Parker Williams, Ph.D. - 'Supercharge Your Career'
• Don Woodard, MD - 'Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle'
• Annette Yates (BDPA Richmond) - 'Member Spotlight'

Where are they now?

Where Are They Now? Personal Digital Assistants

I had a Palm personal digital assistant (PDA) back in the day. I thought that I was quite state-of-the-art at the time. I still have the PDA in the back of my desk drawer. Oddly enough, I think it was my experience with PDAs that made me somewhat gun-shy about getting a smart-phone. My 10-year old son received a smartphone for Christmas. I guess it's time for me to let go of my PDA memories and move into the 2010s!

Do you remember Palm Pilots and other PDA devices?

What they were: The handy-dandy, pocketable gadgets that started as organizers in the early 1990s and blossomed into full-blown computing devices, from the pioneering Apple Newton and Casio Zoomer to the enduringly popular Palm PalmPilot and Compaq iPaq lines.

What happened: By 2005 or so, stand-alone PDAs were rendered almost entirely superfluous by their close cousins known as smartphones, which started out big and clunky but eventually did everything a PDA did, and a lot more. Despite occasional attempts to reinvent the PDA -- such as Palm’s ill-fated LifeDrive -- almost nobody chose to purchase and carry a phone and a PDA.

Current whereabouts: I’m not sure when any manufacturer last released a new PDA, unless you want to count the iPod Touch as one. (And come to think of it, I can’t think of a strong argument against calling it a PDA.) HP, which acquired the iPaq line when it bought Compaq, still sells four aging PDAs under the name. Palm, meanwhile, maintains an eerie ghost town of a handheld store, which still lists three models but says they’re all sold out. Amazon still has Palm PDAs in stock, though, so they’re not quite dead. Yet.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

Related articles

• Qualcomm buys Palm, iPaq patents from HP
• Looking For A PDA Phone- Essential Feature Comparison Of The Best Personal Digital Assistant Phones
• HP buys Palm- Success or Failure?

Where Are They Now? BDPA Atlanta Chapter Presidents

BDPA Atlanta is one of the oldest chapters in the nation. The chapter has a potent legacy in BDPA history. The chapter hosted national BDPA technology conferences in 1986 ('Securing Your Professional Future'), 1999 ('Closing the Gap in Information Technology') and 2008 ('Harnessing Emerging Technologies to Advance IT Careers').

The chapter trained high school students well enough to win the silver medal at the national computer competitions held in Chicago (2001) and Orlando (2002). The members of those two high-flying HSCC teams won Bemley Scholarships. These Bemley Scholars are: Joseph Altamirondo, Michael Belinsky, Simon Elfimov, Tanisha Gary, Zachary Horton, David Hoytt, Tristan Kyles, Ashley Stewart and Jessica Tipton.

BDPA Atlanta chapter reached the mountaintop when the HSCC team they trained took home the gold medal in Baltimore (2012)!  The HSCC championship students are:  Jimmy Nguyen, Yash Shirsath, Sunheng Taing and Allen Warner.

2012 HSCC Champions!

I hope that these HSCC alumni are still connected to BDPA. We want HSCC testimonials from each of these young people if they can be located.

Four of the past BDPA Atlanta chapter presidents (Millicent Fuller, Felicia Jones, Michael McCrimmon and Teresa Williams) also served as members of the National BDPA Executive Committee. It would be great if we could hear from each of the past BDPA Atlanta chapter presidents:

• Sheryl Franklin (1981-1982)
• Jackie Snow (1983)
• Charles Sutherland (1984)
• Gerald Dapremont (1985)
• Larry Calloway (1986)
• Spencer McKinney (1987)
• Willie Odoms (1988-1989)
• Beverly Meadows (1990-1991)
• Tony Dean (1992-1993)
• Millicent Fuller (1994-1995)
• Michael McCrimmon (1996-1997)
• Gwen Williams (1998-1999)
• Johnathan Watkins (2000-2001)
• Carmen Murray (2002-2003)
• Perry Chase (2004)
• Denise Wilmot (2005-2006)
• Teresa Williams (2007-2009)
• Carter Hill (2010-2011)
• Felicia Jones (2012-2013) 
• Derrick Brown (2013-2015)

Where are they now?

Related articles

• Tech Expresso Cafe: Derrick Brown (BDPA Atlanta)
• Message from BDPA Atlanta Chapter President
• Tech Expresso Cafe': BDPA Atlanta Chapter Kickoff for 2014 Computer Camp

Where Are They Now? BDPA New York Chapter Presidents

BDPA New York chapter was founded in January 1983. The idea took hold at the end of 1982 when Stan White (New Jersey Chapter) contacted several of his co-workers at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Greater New York inquiring if we wanted to get together to talk about an organization named Black Data Processing Associates. A group of people met in the Blue Cross cafeteria and decided to pursue the idea.

The initial charter members for BDPA New York chapter included: Willie Cummings, Barbara Gordon, Debra Johnson, Ernest Molina, Stan Seymore and Stan White. Their decision to create a chapter was a good one as evidenced by the fact that BDPA New York was named 'Chapter of the Year' in 1988, 1999, 2011 and 2012. I was a member of the BDPA New York chapter in 1996-1997 while living and working on Long Island.

Judaea Lane, George Baker, Renee McClure & Tony Codrington

It would be great to hear from our past, current and future BDPA New York chapter presidents. Here is the list as best we can tell:

• Ernest Molina (1982-1983)
• Willie Cummings (1984-1985)
• Anita Wilson (1986)
• George Baker (1987)
• Michael Robinson (1988-1989)
• Roxanne Burrus (1990)
• Tony Codrington (1991-1992)
• Roger Dunn (1993)
• Renee McClure (1994-1997)
• Shirley Monrose (1998-1999)
• Jeffry Kimble (2000-2005)
• Judaea Lane (2006-2010)
• Renetta English (2011-2013)
• Tyrone McKinney (2014-2015)

Two of the past New York chapter presidents served as national officers: Roxanne Burrus (national BDPA treasurer) and Renee McClure (national BDPA president).

The chapter hosted the national BDPA Technology Conference in 1991 ('Getting to the Core of Technology').

The chapter has been one of the most dominant chapters in the national high school computer competition (HSCC). BDPA New York chapter won the national HSCC championship in four different years (1988, 1989, 1992 and 1999).

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) awarded Bemley Scholarships to New York chapter students:  Kevin Castillo (2009), Frantzy Jean-Phillips (2009), Christopher Lezama (1999), Kevin O'Neil (1999), Donald Porter (1999), Cazemba Richards (2009), Alan Rosales (2009) and Barine Tee (1999).

We've mentioned alot of names in this blog post.   The question remains:

Where are they now?

Where Are They Now? Hercules

What it was: An extremely popular line of graphics cards for IBM PCs and compatibles. Hercules first appeared in 1982, the year after the IBM PC was launched, and was known for its high-quality text; it was as synonymous with graphics in the 1980s as Creative’s Sound Blaster was with audio a decade later.

What happened: When fancy color graphics replaced Spartan text displays, Hercules continued to be a prominent brand for years, though it never dominated as it did in the early years. But in 1998, it was bought out by competitor Elsa, which then went bankrupt and sold the Hercules brand to French tech company Guillemot. (In researching this article, I’ve come to the conclusion that one sale or merger is usually bad news for a venerable brand, and a second one is usually near-fatal.) Guillemot continued to make cards under the Hercules name for several years. But industry consolidation in the graphics biz was ongoing and brutal, and in 2004 it ceased production of them.

Current whereabouts: The Hercules name lives on, but in an array of tech gadgets that doesn’t include graphics cards: Guillemot uses it for notebooks, Wi-Fi and powerline networking gear, sound cards, speakers, iPod accessories, laptop bags and more. I wish them luck. But it’s a little as if McDonald's stopped selling burgers to concentrate on tuna salad, Philly cheese steaks, BLTs and Reubens.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

Where Are They Now: BDPA Miami (OH) University Founders

BDPA made a push for college chapters in 2000-2001 time frame. The experiment with college chapters ended in 2007 when existing college chapters were merged into professional chapters in the same geographic area.

I was chapter president in Cincinnati when we helped to create a BDPA college chapter at Miami (OH) University. The BDPA Miami (OH) University Chapter founded in 2001 by some talented students and faculty advisers. Some of the charter members included:

1. Vincent Cross
2. Nnenna Ezeh
3. Daphney Graves
4. Monica Hopkins
5. Stanley Jackson
6. Veronica Lewis
7. Ryan Nalls
8. Jason Poole
9. Thomas Taleatha
10. Joseph Warren

Where are they now?

Where Are They Now: BDPA Dallas Chapter Presidents (1987-2013)

Originally Posted: Sep 2009

Barbara Fuller was BDPA Dallas chapter president in 1990. I haven't talked with her in over a decade. Imagine my pleasure to find her on Facebook the other day! It made me wonder what became of the other brothers and sisters that led the BDPA Dallas chapter since it was founded in 1987.

Can you tell us where they are now?:

1. B.K. Gamble (1987-1989)
2. Barbara Fuller (1990)
3. William Flowers (1991-1993)
4. Wanda Bynum-Wilson (1994-1995)
5. Jackie Ockleberry (1996-1999)
6. Pete Davis (2000-2001)
7. David Trammell (2002-2003)
8. D. J. Washington (2004)
9. Letitia Andrews (2005-2006)
10. Reginald Andrews (2006)
11. Kimberly Vaughn (2007-2009)
12. Chris Johnson (2010-2011)
13. Stacy Stewart (2012-2013)

I'm hopeful that y'all will reach out to these good brothers and sisters and request that they POST A COMMENT here on this blog. It is like our own private Dallas chapter scavenger hunt.

Where are they now?

Where Are They Now: 2005 Conference Honorary Chairs

I enjoyed my final year as national BDPA president. One of the highlights of the year was hosting the annual BDPA Technology Conference in Detroit MI. I started my BDPA career as a member of the BDPA Detroit chapter back in 1988 ... so it seemed fitting to end my presidential term with the conference being held in downtown Detroit.

Anyhow, one of the important elements of any conference is the honorary chairs. These are the people who lend credibility to the gathering. They reach into their Rolodex to call on their colleagues to attend and support the event. The 2005 BDPA Conference Honorary Chairs were:

1. Anthony Abbattista (Vice President, Enterprise Technology Strategy & Planning, Allstate Insurance) - Mr. Abbattista joined Allstate in 2003 and was responsible for enterprise strategy, applications, information services, technical architecture and technology governance.
   
2. Bob Blackwell (BDPA Outside Director) - Robert D. Blackwell, Sr. was chairman and CEO of Blackwell Consulting Services (BCS), a company he founded in 1992 after 25 years with IBM. BCS appeared on the Black Enterprises Top 100 multiple times. Bob was also the keynote speaker at the awards gala in 2005.
   
3. Curvie Burton (ITSMF Chairperson) - In addition to being ITSMF chair, Curvie was a senior director for EDS. At EDS he led a global initiative focused on development and deployment of a consistent business model for account operations. Curvie served as president of BDPA Detroit chapter back in 1992-1993.
   
4. Stephen Finnerty (Vice President, Worldwide IT Operations, Dell) - Steve Finnerty was responsible for managing Dell's global supply chain and manufacturing systems. It was thru his vision and support that our BDPA Austin chapter was founded.
   
5. Peter Karmanos, Jr. (Chairman/CEO, Compuware Corporation) - Mr. Karmanos ensures that Compuware delivers value to its customers. How? Simple - through the hottest distributed products in the market, through outstanding professional services and through the most respected mainframe software in the world. Compuware invested more in BDPA over the past 30 years than any corporation in America.
   
6. George Maier (Vice President, Business Operations, Hewlett-Packard) - Mr. Maier led a multidimensional organization responsible for global customer account support and worldwide business process development.
   
7. Chris Scalet (Chief Information Officer, Merck & Company) - Mr. Scalet is responsible for worldwide information technology operations with one of the largest companies in America. He was keynote speaker at the opening ceremonies of our 2003 annual BDPA Technology Conference held in Philadelphia PA.
   
8. Marlin Wilson-Threatt - (Deputy Chief Information Officer, City of Detroit) - Ms. Wilson-Threatt was responsible for developing consistent and progressive information technology policies, budget and staff management, project implementation, and ongoing support of the network, desktops, and business applications.

These eight leaders helped us have a tremendously successful national conference in 2005. I wonder if this post will bring them through cyberspace to leave a COMMENT below? If not, perhaps you can tell us where they are now? What say u?

Where Are They Now? Sony MiniDisc

What it was: Sony’s format for pint-sized recordable audio discs, introduced in 1992. The idea was that it combined the best qualities of compact discs and cassette tapes into one high-quality, portable package that could contain up to 80 minutes of music.

What happened: MiniDisc found some fans -- it was popular in Asia and among musicians. But it never gained much support from the music industry, so few prerecorded albums were available. And within a few years of its introduction, it found itself competing with digital downloads. While Sony introduced NetMD, a MiniDisc variant that supported MP3, the company made it remarkably unappealing by adding copy protection to your tracks as you transferred them to disc. Why would you choose NetMD when a multitude of players, such as those from Diamond and Creative, let MP3s be MP3s? Good question!

Current whereabouts: In 2004, Sony upgraded the MiniDisc format with Hi-MD, a higher-capacity, more flexible standard that was backwards-compatible with MiniDiscs. It garnered some admiration among audiophiles for the high quality of its recording capabilities. But as of 2009, only one Hi-MD device remains in Sony’s lineup, the MZ-M200. It’s aimed at musicians and journalists who need to make recordings on the go. The moment it disappears, we can officially declare MiniDisc dead.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

Where Are They Now? Amiga

What it was: A remarkable line of personal computers, introduced by home PC pioneer Commodore in 1985, that delivered powerful multimedia and multitasking years before they became commonplace on PCs and Macs.

What happened: Well, you could fill a book with the details -- and hey, someone did. Commodore had superb technology, but did a terrible job of developing and marketing it. You could argue that Amiga would have petered out no matter who owned it -- even Apple flirted with death as DOS and then Windows overwhelmed other alternatives -- but Commodore’s decision-making sure didn’t help. In 1994, it declared bankruptcy and stopped making computers. The Amiga name went on to change hands at least four times over the next decade, sometimes being used on hardware, sometimes being used on software and sometimes just disappearing.

Current whereabouts: You can find Amiga lovers on Twitter. Amiga Inc, the current owner of the Amiga name, uses it on middleware for set-top boxes as well as games and other applications for cell phones (you can buy an Amiga tip calculator). It also says it’s still working on Amiga OS 4.0, a product so long in the making that it, like Harlan Ellison’s science-fiction anthology The Last Dangerous Visions, is best known for how long it’s been promised without ever appearing. As a former Amiga fanatic, I hope it does ship someday -- there’s no way a new Amiga OS wouldn’t be cooler than an Amiga tip calculator.

---

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

Where Are They Now? BDPA Los Angeles Chapter Presidents

BDPA Los Angeles was the first BDPA chapter located in the pacific time zone when it was founded in 1986. BDPA Los Angeles chapter trivia:

My mom (Liz Hicks) served as BDPA Los Angeles chapter president in 1993-1994. A few years later I served as president of BDPA Cincinnati chapter (1999-2001). We were the only relatives to serve as BDPA president until a few years later when the Roberts' sisters (Monique/Seattle and Jovan/Detroit) duplicated the feat!

Our Los Angeles chapter hosted national BDPA technology conferences in 1989 ('Ideas in the Making') and 2006 ('Picturing the Future of Information Technology').

The chapter has never won the national high school computer competition (HSCC), however, they have had very positive impact on HSCC alumni such as Clyde Hill (2003-2005), Kelly Hill (2001-2003) and Joshua Roy (2004)

I would love to make a connection with other HSCC alumni from our Los Angeles chapter. Where are they now?

Past BDPA Los Angeles chapter president Robert Riddick (shown in photo) served as the national parliamentarian and a member of the BETF Board of Directors for many years. It would be great if we could hear from each of the past BDPA Los Angeles chapter presidents:

• Joseph Uroquart (1982)
• Connie Moore (1983-1986)
• Robert Riddick (1987-1990)
• Darolyn Howard (1991-1992)
• Donna Elijah (1993)
• Tracey Oxley (1993)
• Elizabeth Hicks (1993-1994)

• Reginald Watson (1995-1998)
• Robert Gardner (1999-2000)
• Angela White-Parker (2001-2004)
• Narvin Yarbrough (2005-2006)
• Andree Justin (2007-2008)
• John Malonson (2009-2012) - shown in photo

Where Are They Now?

Where Are They Now? BDPA Philadelphia Chapter Presidents

We commonly refer to BDPA Philadelphia as 'THE Chapter' ... paying homage to its status as the original BDPA chapter back in 1976. The first few organizational meetings held at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia with about 15 people talking about whether or not a Black technology-based organization made sense.

Another meeting held later in 1976 at the Urban Careers Education Center with about 35 people from various areas of the data processing community confirmed the name, Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA). A task force (Roger Berry, Craig Bethea, Ralph E. Gordon Jr., Earl A. Pace, and David Wimberly) appointed to create the initial BDPA bylaws.

The following people were elected as BDPA Philadelphia chapter officers in June 1976: President: Earl A. Pace Jr., Vice President: Ralph E. Gordon Jr., Secretary: Charles C. Jones Jr., Treasurer: Mary Ann Lowery, Program Committee: Craig Bethea, Roy Barnes, and F. Douglas Funderburg, Membership Committee: James Moten.

Our Philadelphia chapter hosted national BDPA technology conferences in 1981 ('Growth Through Professional Association'), 1985 ('A Decade of Professional Growth'), 1995 ('Linking Business, Education and Technology') and 2003 ('Information Technology: From the Classroom to the Boardroom').

It surprised me to learn that BDPA Philadelphia never won 'Chapter of the Year' honors until 2007-2008. Chapter president Monique Berry want Philaldephia to become only the second chapter in history to win this coveted award three years in a row. Do you know the only chapter to three-peat in BDPA history?

BDPA Philadelphia has been unable to train a national championship team for the high school computer competition (HSCC). However, the chapter did have a student (Christian West) earn the Eli Lilly Scholarship for BDPA Students in 2008. The chapter has never won the national HSCC, however, they have had very positive impact on HSCC alumni such as Marcellus Sims (2006-2007)

I would love to make a connection with other HSCC alumni from our Philadelphia chapter. Where are they now?

Past BDPA Philadelphia chapter presidents Earl Pace and Donald Campbell (shown in the photo) served at one point or another on the National BDPA Executive Committee. It would be great if we could hear from each of the past BDPA Philadelphia chapter presidents:

• Earl Pace (1976-1978)
• Ralph Gordon (1979-1980)
• Roy Barnes (1981)
• Alan Ware (1982-1983)
• Roy Barnes (1984)
• Debbie Watson (1985-1986)
• Michelle Walls (1987-1989)
• Clark Mitchell (1990)
• Howard James (1991-1992)
• Priscilla Wynn-Brown (1993-1994)
• Victor Brooks (1995-1996)
• Frank Bright (1997)
• Ron Cureton (1998)
• Michael Trent (1999)
• James Leggett (2000-2001)
• Beverly Chandran (2002-2003)
• Donald Campbell (2004-2005)
• Curtis Jenkins (2006-2007)
• Monique Berry (2008-2009)
• Hayward West (2010-2011)
• Eileen Gadsden (2012-2013)

Where Are They Now?

Where Are They Now: 2003 BDPA Leaders

One of the things that I love to do with this blog is highlight the legacy of our organization. In the past, we have asked 'Where Are They Now?' about:

• 1996 national BDPA leaders
• 1999 BDPA chapter presidents
• 2001 national HSCC champions
• 2005 Northern Virginia charter members
• BDPA Member-of-the-Year award winners

Today, we ask the question about the brothers and sisters who served as BDPA leaders in 2003. I would love for these powerful brothers and sisters to come visit with us on this blog. Perhaps we can get them to POST A COMMENT to let us know what they are up to now. Here are those 2003 leaders:

• Vercilla Brown, executive director
• Milt Haynes, national president
• Wayne Hicks, national president-elect
• Rick Giraudy, national VP-Finance
• Donna McKay, national VP-Strategy & Planning
• Reggie Gardner, national VP-Member Services
• Brooks Baker, national VP-Membership Management
• Renee McClure, national immediate past president
• Earl Pace, founder
• Bob Blackwell, outside director
• Will Bundy, outside director
• Michael McCrimmon, outside director
• Anita Vega, national conference treasurer
• Janice Coleman, national conference planner
• Cris Levy, national conference planner
• Jeffry Kimble, national parliamentarian
• Ricky Penick, chapter president liaison

---

These are remarkable brothers and sisters. I hope that you will share your thoughts and rememberances on the 2003 BDPA leadership team down in the POST A COMMENT link down below. What say u?

Where Are They Now? BDPA Greater Columbia Chapter Presidents

BDPA Greater Columbia chapter has created quite a legacy for itself since being chartered in 1997. For example, one of the young people trained by the chapter is currently enrolled at Duke University on a $180,000 college scholarship that she won during a national BDPA conference from the United States Navy [SOURCE].

Mildred Allen

The chapter is also a ripe source of national leadership. Two members of the chapter have served as national officers in recent years. Mildred Allen did remarkable work as National BDPA vice president of membership management. The national organization created a new membership database and web portal under her leadership. Paulette Johnson-Davis (BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina) implemented new and improved programs for BDPA in her role as our National BDPA vice president of member services. Both of these women have also been active leaders in past national BDPA technology conferences.

BDPA Greater Columbia is blessed to have some remarkable and visionary women as its past presidents since 1997:

• 1997-1999: Barbara Singleton Code (Strayer University)
• 2000-2001, 2006-2009: Paulette Johnson-Davis (BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina)
• 2002-2003, 2012-2013: Mildred Allen (SCANA)
• 2004-2005: Tonya Dorsey (BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina)
• 2010-2011: Phyllis Coleman (BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina)

My joy with the chapter has been its commitment to the education and mentorship of young people. Scores of students have been trained by BDPA Greater Columbia in the past few years ... in fact, the chapter hosted a regional conference with participation from students in Atlanta, Charlotte and elsewhere.

Our hope is that BDPA Greater Columbia chapter will continue to evolve as a beacon of light for all of us in the information technology industry over the years to come. You can do your part -- please make a secure online donation towards college scholarships for BDPA Greater Columbia students.

Where Are They Now? Monochrome Displays

What they were: The black-and-white CRT that most businesses and many homes used with computers from the 1970s through the late 1980s -- and they worked just fine, since most DOS applications made little use of color, and early Macs didn’t support it at all.

What happened: Graphical user interfaces, multimedia and games made universal use of color inevitable, but it took a long time before it truly conquered computing. Well into the 1990s, lots of folks who wouldn’t dream of using a black-and-white display with a desktop PC still toted monochrome notebooks. But today, even a $200 netbook has a perfectly respectable color display.

Current whereabouts: You don’t want a monochrome display. But if you did, you wouldn’t have trouble finding one. They’re still out there in large quantities, being used for electronic cash registers and other unglamorous but important text-based applications. And hey, monochrome is making its own unexpected sort of comeback: My Kindle 2 e-book reader has an E-Ink screen that does 16 shades of gray, and nothing else.

SOURCE: 'Where Are They Now? 25 Computer Products That Refuse to Die' by Harry McCracken.

Where Are They Now: 2000 BDPA Cincinnati HSCC Team

L-R: Raven Chambers, Stephanie Ross, Jarelle Marshall, Mike Sutherland (volunteer coach provided by Procter & Gamble), Brandon Berry and Terris Poole.


This is a photo of the team trained by BDPA Cincinnati chapter in 2000. These youngsters (and their coach) came close to winning the national championship that year ... before settling for the silver medal.

The question for you is simple! Use the COMMENTS option below to tell us WHERE THEY ARE NOW! For extra credit ... which chapter won the 2000 national HSCC championship?